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22:55 Steve Jobs: Motivational Speech
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com This is a great speech, given by a great entrepreneur and if you are having doubts about what you are trying to do, either in terms of a career or in terms of starting a business, this speech will lift you up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
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22:35
Post Recession Stocks List
» For Love and Money Post Recession Stocks List
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19:50
War of the Cushites
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com I’ve been observing this war of the roses feud between William “I”m gonna eat your mama” Ntimama and William “will-kill router”. Isn’t this an interesting feud? I must say that I am surprised that no reporter in Kenya has approached Ntimama and asked him what he meant when he delivered that harrowing statement. [...]
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16:13
Action alert: putting the pressure on Mugabe
» Black Looks Sokwanele are calling supporters to take action against Austrian company : Jura JSP ACTION: We are calling on all our supporters and subscribers today to phone, email and write to Jura JSP and ask them to withdraw the software licence from the Zimbabwean government on the grounds that the cash they print has been used to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Action alert: putting the pressure on Mugabe", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/action_alert_putting_the_pressure_on_mugabe.html" }); -
Molesters and Voters
» Black Looks Marko Phiri of Kubatana draws the analogy between women being unable to exercise their democratic right to vote for their choice of candidate and that of the right of a woman not to be physically molested and to dress as she pleases. I listened with disgust the other day to a woman and two men [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Molesters and Voters", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/molesters_and_voters.html" });
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14:02
Tips on Repatriating to Kenya from Linda of Capital FM
» The Displaced African 
A Few Things Before We Get Started
Some Back Story
This interview was actually done on request. One of you actually wrote to me and asked me to do a post on repatriating to Kenya. Your wish is my command. I hope its of use to you.
Late Night Stalker?!
Because of a misunderstanding, I ended up calling Linda at the wrong time and actually woke her in the middle of the night to conduct this interview: so if Linda sounds very ethereal, I can assure you it’s not because of any charisma or charm on my part
So That’s Why I Can’t Download the Audio Files!
I finally figured out what’s wrong with my podcasting system. I upgraded Wordpress too quickly and the guys who created the podcasting system are taking their time to catch up.
In the meantime, subscribe to the Displaced African podcast (watch this video where I explain how you can do it) and you will receive this as well as the Kirk Nugent and all other podcasts direct to your mp3 player in the very near future.
This interview was about Linda’s repatriating to Kenya from the USA. In spite of that, I think some of the material in the podcast applies to anyone moving back to anywhere in Africa from anywhere abroad.
NB: As is the case with any semi-informal conversation, there is occasional course language, but its so sporadic that it hardly matters.
The Podcast
Download audio file (Relocating to Africa with Linda from.mp3)
Things Covered
1) How long has she been away from Africa?
2) Words of advice to anyone whose been abroad and is thinking of repatriating
3) The difference between good culture shock and bad culture shock
4) Difficulties she faced readjusting to life in Kenya (This answer will surprise you……and then remind you, lest you forgot)
5) Was it easy to readjust after so many years abroad?
6) Discussion of some of the technical aspects of repatriating to Kenya: getting an ID, NSSF number, P.O. Box etc. The connection between all this and a sense of history and legacy.
7) The sequence for getting your ID, pin and NSSF number. p.o. box etc
8 ) Give yourself time to readjust: some tips on that.
9) Does she talk to other recently repatriated Kenyans? What’s that like?
10) TIPS FOR GETTING WORK WHEN YOU REPATRIATE
11) How Linda got her job with Capital FM while still living in the States
12) The story of “the essence of man”
Happy flying,
Mwangi
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11:01
Please Do Not Marry Fat Pot-Bellied White Women!!
» You Missed This .......why Githongo must come back home very fast.
We are all aware of the thousands upon thousands of able Kenyan men who cannot resist marriage to very fat white women when they are in pursuit of makaratasi. I'm sure some of you reading about this phenomena are victims of the same. The plan is usually to avoid any children for the two or three years it takes to receive that precious document. Unfortunately, some of these extra wide voluptuous white women become very crafty and indeed end up producing one or two babies. Many Kenyans have reached that crossroad; do you stay and enjoy that extra white mattress of a woman for the rest of your life or do you take off knowing that you will pay child support for the next 18 years? In retrospect, many Kenyan men wish they had a referee in the bedroom to ensure that no unwanted goals were scored at all costs.
Folks, it is at this very timely moment in our history that we need 'Githongo the Referee'. It's my hope that this man heeds the PMs call to come back to Kenya. You see, in the coalition marriage between ODM and PNU, it is quite clear who the very fat pot-bellied white woman is. It is also clear who the do-what-it-takes Kenyan man is. My friends, If we are not careful, we will find ourselves with very many babies. These babies will continue to have names such as Anglo-Leasing, Goldenberg etc. If we allow this very bad behavior to happen, Kenyans will have no option but to pay child support bills for very many years. Our paychecks will be garnished by the taxman until we are very old men and women.
I will remind you that we have recently paid child support bills in blood. Yes fellas, the post election violence, land disputes etc was actually a backdated child support bill resulting from the children brought into this world by our married post colonial leaders (the ones who stole all the land).
The way I see it, we need 'Githongo the Referee' to be in the State House bedroom at all hours. We need him there to ensure that this coalition marriage does not get too cozy and comfortable. Githongo must ensure that the bedroom lights remain brightly lit…...even at night. We need Githongo to thwart any efforts or schemes that will lead to fat white women with pregnant bellies. He must make sure that no champagne or changaa is drunk in the bedroom because we all know where that leads to.
For the love of country, Githongo must accept to be the prophylactic that prevents the conception and delivery of corruption.
Otherwise, babies will continue popping out very rapidly….as in the case when you make popcorn from scratch.
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9:47
Mobile Phone Reporting in Africa
» White African For the last year there has been quite a bit of talk about mobile phone reporting in Africa. For good reason too, since this lowers the technology barrier to getting stories out of hard-to-reach places. Imagine, all you need to do is find a journalist and equip them with an adequate mobile phone Now you can record interviews in video and audio, take pictures and upload in almost any part of the continent.
Netherland’s based AfricaNews has been a pioneer in this space, starting last year with their “Voices of Africa” section of their site. I’ve been continually impressed with how they find, train and equip their journalists all over Africa. My one problem with what they do is that they don’t allow for the proliferation of their reporters work around the web by hamstringing the ability to share by embedding the reports in other websites.
Colin Daniels is the Publisher for Times Online in South Africa, arguably one of the better newspapers and always on the cutting edge of news sites online globally. A couple weeks ago he posted on his personal blog about a new initiative in where Nokia is testing mobile journalism through local universities using the Nokia/Reuter’s mobile newskit. He says,
“This has all been made possible by constant technological breakthroughs and the portability and immediacy of connected mobile devices; it is becoming increasingly feasible for journalists to replace their pens and dictaphones for converged smart phones with exceptional audio/visual capabilities such as the Nokia N95. Add a keyboard, tripod, and an external microphone and all of a sudden you have a portable newsroom and studio in one…”
A true, and exciting statement that applies to mainstream journalism and blogging. Colin refers to the N95 “Mojo” toolkit (pictured above) that Reuters uses as well. The value here is that as mainstream news sources put more resources towards mobile journalism the tools get better for everyone (amateur and professional).
All of this optimism has to be tempered with some real-world examples of how it’s still a difficult field to work in and how the technology is still not quite there for full-fledged real-time news feeds. David Axe, a war journalist, wrote a fascinating article for Wired on the failures of his mobile phone trials in Chad matching up a Nokia N95 with streaming mobile news service Qik.
It should be noted the problem was not with the phone, but with the web service Qik and the poor mobile data network in Chad. This can be a real problem for anyone using MMS or any other GSM service. Though some parts of Africa have strong networks, many others are home to the worst in the world. Of course, this makes Africa one of the great testing grounds for any new device or service, so there is a silver lining to every cloud.
“…there should be a “store” function, whereby you can shoot a video in some austere location, save it to your phone’s memory, then stream it later once you’ve got a solid network. With that function alone, I could’ve filed scores of fascinating videos about refugee camps, peacekeepers and urban combat.”
A simple solution, utilizing SD card memory could have made his trial a success. David’s quote above serves to underscore one other incredibly important point; web and mobile services need to at least test in Africa, if not have a small development shop there to truly create robust applications. After all, if it can work in Africa, it can work anywhere.
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8:24
Monday Moanings Part XVI
» My part of the world....... Another Monday is upon us! I don't have much to say other than vent a bit about some people. If there is one thing I hate it's liars, and what I hate even worse than liars are unrepentant liars. Have you ever caught someone in the the wrong, call them out and then they try and turn it around on you claiming that you are in the wrong, claiming you have trust issues and all that mess. When in reality you actually have more evidence than you think they do about what they did. Why I bother dealing with some people I don't even know. Anyway that is someone extra to boot out of my life.
I'm a bit late on this but seems like schools are striking en masse in Kenya. And in true mzee fashion Prof Ongeri decides to try and put out the smoke instead of the fire. Getting rid of cell phones in schools and DVD players isn't going to do much in the long run; the issues go far deeper than that.
Let's keep it real, many boarding schools' administration style leaves a whole lot to be desired. Add to the fact that many of them are still ran on the 1970's model of administration where children are meant to be seen and not heard. Listening to your students and talking to them can yield alot of results and this hardly every happens in many boarding schools and quite a few day schools too.
But on the other hand, many parents today have abdicated their roles as parents and role models. So as a result kids expect to have the same freedoms they have at home when they go to school. Add to this the fact that according to some parents their children can do no wrong so the teachers have no leeway when it comes to discipline. Throw in the increasing number of single parent households and you end up having a lack of male role models and the remaining parent is too busy trying to put food on the table to bother with Jr tearing up the school every other day.
I'm not even going to mention the KCSE fiasco. There's alot of work to be done. Thank God I am not a parent....
Anyway enough of the serious stuff! Time for the fun weekend pics. All opinions welcome! Have a nice day all!
Is the gal on the far left pregnant or just big?
As you can see in clubs the M.O when it comes to dancing is girl's ass meet's dude's crotch, but in some cases like the couple in the far right for some reason or other that doesn't work so........
First things first, why is there always tissue paper on the floor in these grimy clubs? Second how can the chic on the far left be barefoot after looking at the state of the floor. Third, why is the dude behind her drenched, is that sweat or what? Fourth, I wonder if that hand made it to it's desired destination?
I'd like to know the logistics of what they were doing too
Real friends don't let friends go out looking like a mess...
Please look at the expression of the chica on the far left, she sums it up best!
Now you all know what a camel toe is....
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7:57
interns!
» Kikuyumoja's realm Dear applicants for an internship (whereever),
pls allow me to provide the following advice on improving your applications:
When applying for an internship or a job, pls make sure to include a letter which explains why you want to work with Acme Inc. and why you think you are qualified for the position.
Pls format* your CV & letter in an eye-friendly way, e.g.:
- one font
- clear structure
- no typos
- save as PDF
I may be a bit too German aka the “grammar nazi” aka following a certain norm on this, but then: there sure is a reason why ppl sometimes are refused a position.
In other words: what’s the use of employing someone who even has a PhD in something if he/she can’t even write a proper business letter or follow simple formatting guidelines?
I have really come to appreciate formatting norms and - while you won’t have to use progs like LaTeX & Co to ueberformat your work - i’d really appreciate if ppl just stop this *copy & paste culture* and start preparing their work in an easy-to-read format.
I will also have to improve my own style, so I do not exclude myself from this mwalimu mkuu wisdom.
(* = you won’t have to be a design student or Apple user or even coder to understand this simple guideline. If in doubt, pls use a template!)
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7:12
Poems of Good Hope competition
» Kenyanpoet 
IBM Germany and the international Literature Festival Berlin are announcing a poetry contest. From the 5th July until 30th August all users of the site www.sawubona-musicjam.com are invited to put a poem on the subject of "Good Hope" on the website. It should not exceed 30 lines. Poems in any language are welcome but only an English version which is either the author's own or the translation by any other user of the site will participate in the contest. Winners will be announced on September 10th.
With the help of the website's users through simple ratings, the ten best poems will be shortlisted. Five international will then assess shortlisted ones and elect the win-ners of the contest. The decision of the jury will be made known on the 10th September at the 8th international literature festival berlin.
Prizes:
The first prize involves a trip to South Africa and a cash award of 500 Euro. 2nd and 3rd to receive the cash award of 500 Euro only. In the event that the author and the translator are not one and the same person, the cash awards will be equally shared between both of them. The trip to South Africa will be awarded in that case to each of the winners - author and translator.
Moreover the international literature festival berlin will select one participant of the competition who will have the possibility of appearing in the context of the Poetry Slam Show (more information is to be found at www.literaturfestival.com) at the 8th international literature festival berlin.
Contest Requirements- Requirement for participation is the availability of the poem besides the author‘s native language in english.
- The author can add his own translation or other users can translate his poem into english. Both the author of the original poem and the author of the best translation have the chance of winning. The prize will be splitted between both.
- Every poem must be submitted under the creative commons license "Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany".
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Eventful Weekend Where Nasty Snakes Were Smoked Out Of Their Holes
» You Missed This To be perfectly honest with you I did not really realize just how sensitive a topic I was touching on in my weekly special feature this past weekend. That was until some rather strange comments (some of which I deleted started popping up).
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Also in Kumekucha today: Mother-in-law or Monster-in-law?
How a small business was rescued from bankruptcy to prosperity. Copy the tips.---------------
What would you do if you have been a strong anti-corruption activist for many years and then you are suddenly confronted with the question of how your own family acquired the wealth that was used to pay for your education to enable you to be where you are today?
There is no doubt that the topic of how the wealthiest Kenyan families made their money has rubbed many up the wrong way. But it is a reality that we MUST face. And for many reasons but mainly because for the war against corruption to be successful, justice cannot be dished out selectively. And yet for that justice to be done, one would have to touch virtually every prominent respectable wealthy family in Kenya today. This cuts across both the so-called old money and the newer money and it also cuts across political parties and tribes.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the top 5 wealthiest Kenyans are all names from Kenyan politics.
My report this weekend certainly smoked many “snakes” out of their holes. And they come out firing from the hip, both barrels desperately blazing. One commentator claimed that by offering sensitive information via email, I was collecting email addresses to sell to Nigerian scam artists. Now that is somebody who is really running scared over the information that is now being widely distributed to Kenyans. Let me tell you a secret. One of the reasons why I favor email is that emails get forwarded all over the place and a vast number of Kenyans will end up getting information in the safety of their email inboxes that many rich Kenyan families would do anything to keep from them.
I take this opportunity to reassure all those who request for my free sensitive information via email that I highly respect their privacy and will NOT pass on their email addresses to anybody (let alone Nigerian conmen). I urge you all to trust me on that one, in the same way you have trusted me to bring you political information that you cannot possibly find anywhere else. In fact the issue of privacy and security is one of the reasons why I have opted to use Yahoogroups the most reputable email opt-in service in the world who also have a reputation to protect. I have done this rather than use many of the other options including my very own software. Yahoogroups is also very easy to opt out of and you can stop my emails coming to you at any time (no questions asked). I therefore urge those readers who are yet to register to do so as recent developments are going to force me to increasingly reveal the most sensitive information I have via email. The service is of course free, send your email Now.
The other ominous threat that I have taken very seriously is that of a man who has said that he intends to shut down this blog in two weeks. You see how desperate folks are?
But I will not be stopped and this is one of the reasons why I have decided that I will continue with this hot topic on how the wealthiest Kenyan families acquired their illegal wealth in my weekend special, next weekend. Don’t miss the second and final part of this important feature which is bound to be even more sizzling hot than last weekend’s.
I would urge all Kenyans to be brave enough to face the truth, however terrible it is. It is the only way we are going to save the motherland.
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African artists respond to social injustice
» Black Looks “Reflections in Exile: Five Contemporary African Artists Respond to Social Injustice” at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury. The show collects work by five immigrants, four of them now living in Greater Boston, the fifth a former MassArt student. Slide Show Tags: African Art Social Injustice SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "African artists respond to social injustice", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/african_artists_respond_to_social_injustice.html" });